This archive article from 1997 contains several out of date links. It is presented here in its original form as a historical document.
A CHANGE OF IDENTITY
THE NEWSLETTER ON EARLY DOCTOR WHO
ISSUE 9
9 NOVEMBER 1997
Edited by Bruce Robinson (robinsba@ozemail.com.au) &
Robert Franks (TelesnapGuy@compuserve.com)
- Hensell : (to the Doctor) “Examiner, you seem to be in two minds.”
- Ben : “Yeah, and two bodies …”
(The Power of the Daleks episode two)
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
| INTERVIEW WITH DAVID HOWE |
| THE 1997 CHANGE OF IDENTITY SURVEY |
| THE SECOND DOCTOR HANDBOOK — A PREVIEW |
| THE DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE JOURNAL — VOLUME II |
| INSIDE THE SPACESHIP STORY GUIDE |
WELCOME!
Welcome to the final ‘Change of Identity’ issue for 1997. Now seems like an appropriate time to once again thank everyone for their contributions over the past year. It doesn’t matter what your contribution was — whether it be answering interview questions, or even just sending in a few comments on a reconstruction you’ve recently viewed — we are all eternally grateful.
For all those old-timers who were around with issue #3, you may recall a short survey that was distributed with the issue. We’ve now decided to make the COI survey an annual event — so although voting has now closed for the 1997 survey you can always look out for the 1998 version! We look forward to hearing your responses!
Meanwhile across the Pacific Ocean, Robert had this to say …
1997 — what a year it’s been. The reconstructions really came into their own this year. Classic stories such as ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘The Invasion’ are now being enjoyed by a whole new audience for damn near the first time in thirty years. All of the efforts of so many fans have come together out of no other interest but to share their love of Doctor Who. It would take too long to thank everyone here, but all of you will know who you are. Bruce and I both appreciate the efforts of everyone, especially those who write in with comments and reviews. The whole thing has encouraged a sense of ‘togetherness’ from fandom that we’re proud to be a part of.
Enjoy the newsletter, fill in the survey, and take care!
Bruce and Robert
RECONSTRUCTION UPDATES
All of the reconstruction creators are currently taking a breather. However, new reconstructions will appear early in the new year. The creators are regrouping to consider their options, thus ensuring that all future productions are of a higher standard.
NEWSLETTER CHANGES
If you do not receive the newsletter via E-mail, you may wish to ignore this next section.
One of the primary reasons for the first ‘Change of Identity’ survey (released with issue #3) was to determine the potential interest in a Word 6 version of the newsletter. Based on the responses, it was apparent that there were enough people who were interested in the alternative option.
However, we’ve now become aware that the Word 6 version has a couple of obvious limitations. To start with — you need to have MS Word!!! Also, formatting differences between countries can cause printing difficulties. Unfortunately, people receiving the plain text version do miss out on a few extras. Although the text is identical, the formatting makes the newsletter so much easier to read (in our opinion anyway).
Therefore, we’ve decided to commence a third option for receiving the newsletter over E-mail, and that’s HTML. Many of you may be familiar with the HTML versions already (they are archived on Dominic Jackson’s web-site). From now on, you have the choice of receiving the newsletter directly in HTML format. If you are interested, please indicate this in your survey response, or send an E-mail to one of the editors.
TRIBUTE
On 30th October, Sydney Newman, one of the principal creators of Doctor Who (amongst many other things) died in Canada aged 80. We are also sad to report the recent passings of Jack May (The Space Pirates, Adam Adamant Lives!) and Ian Stuart Black (author of three sixties stories, including The Savages — the first COI reconstruction).
THE GREAT TELESNAP HUNT — AN UPDATE
Last issue, an article was published detailing the telesnap search currently being undertaken by British fan Richard Bignell. Here is a brief update …
Richard has received a few more responses from his original letter-writing campaign. An interesting response came from Val Musetti, who performed stunt work on Marco Polo, The Crusade and The Daleks’ Master Plan. Although Musetti was unable to help, he passed on the letter to fellow stuntman Derek Ware. Unfortunately, Ware did not have any Doctor Who telesnaps either, although he did indicate that he had obtained stills from Cura for an early 1960’s BBC production called An Age of Kings.
If nothing else, Richard’s search has indicated that many actors were indeed aware of the work that Cura was performing, and did obtain telesnaps on an irregular basis.
Richard has recently embarked on two further avenues of exploration. The first is to contact a variety of directors who worked on the missing episodes, such as Paddy Russell, Derek Martinus and Michael Leeston-Smith. As of writing, Paddy Russell has responded, indicating that she does not possess any telesnaps from The Massacre, and is not aware of the telesnaps ever being offered to the directors by the production office for free.
The second avenue is to track down members of the Cura family, to see if they can supply any further information on (a) the service offered by John Cura, or (b) the whereabouts of the missing telesnaps. When John Cura’s widow was first contacted about the telesnaps, she admitted that she had thrown away most of the telesnaps shortly after Cura’s death. Richard has once again started the process of sending out a significant number of letters.
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID HOWE
This issue we are lucky enough to have a chat with one of the finest researchers into the history of Doctor Who, David J Howe. David has been involved in such projects as ‘The Sixties’, ‘The Seventies’, ‘The Eighties’, ‘Timeframe’ the recently released ‘Book of Monsters’, and the fanzine ‘The Frame’. David has also been involved in the banner tomes known as ‘The Handbooks’. This month will see the release of the penultimate book in the series, ‘The Second Doctor Handbook’. We thought it an appropriate time to question David on just how the Handbooks are put together …
(1) Could you describe to us how the team of David Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker was first formed? What roles do each of you play in the compilation of your books?
I first became “aware” of Steve when he was working with Jeremy Bentham on some of the CMS releases while I was involved in running the DWAS’ Reference Department. I never really met him or knew him, though. I first met Mark when he joined the DWAS to run the Graphics Dept. We hit it off from the word go and Mark did some great stuff with me for the DWAS.
Then, in 1986, I decided I had had enough of running the Ref Dept with all the grief and petty bitching that had gone on behind the scenes and wanted to do my own magazine again (I had edited a fanzine called ‘Oracle’ from 1977 to 1983 and wanted to get back to doing a fanzine). However, I knew that my personal standards were so high that I would not be happy with anything but the best fanzine possible. So I asked Mark (who was and is a graphics designer) if he’d help with that side of it. Then, I heard through the grapevine that Steve was also planning a fanzine and, knowing of his work, realised that perhaps we could all pool our talents into one flagship publication. We talked. He agreed. ‘The Frame’ was born.We then edited and published ‘The Frame’ from 1987 onwards.
As far as the way we work. It has always been pretty much the same. I am the pushy organised one so I get to propose the ideas, get the agreement to do them from the publishers, organise the schedule, sort out who does what, negotiate the contracts, collate all the material together … Steve is the thoughtful researcher and tends to write his material, and then go over mine and Mark’s and ensure that everything is factually accurate and consistent. Mark tends to be the artistic balance, suggesting when the project needs lightening, more of a general touch to Steve’s preference for ‘nothing but the facts’ and doing the layouts and coming up with the ideas for covers etc (although we all like to have a hand in this as well).Obviously these roles are not fixed in stone, but these are the general way of things. As far as the writing goes, we always try and initially apportion the material equally between us.
(2) How did the ‘Handbook’ series first come about? In particular, how was the ordering of the books decided upon?
The Handbooks were actually Virgin’s idea. Peter Darvill-Evans, then Virgin editor, initially had an assistant called Riona and, once we were underway with ‘The Sixties’, she suggested a book per Doctor. Virgin offered the idea to us to do, and we, of course, jumped at the concept (it’s actually something that I doubt Virgin would have gone for if we had suggested it ourselves).
Peter decided that we should kick the range off with the most popular Doctor (T Baker) and then to follow that with the least popular (C Baker). Both of these in his view of course. Then, if sales were good, we would do the rest. The remaining order was based on the principal of not having a Handbook and a decade book that covered the same era out at the same time. Therefore the order of Handbooks were decided upon as: Tom Baker, Colin Baker, William Hartnell, Peter Davison, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Sylvester McCoy.When I was preparing ‘I am the Doctor’, I pushed for the Troughton/Pertwee books to be swapped over. This was so that Jon, who was intending to do publicity for his own book, could also obtain publicity for the handbook at the same time. So the order of the those two books was swapped around. McCoy was always going to be last because we hoped from the start that the series might come back in the interim, thus providing us with more McCoy material to cover (which in fact it did with the Telemovie).
(3) Briefly, could you outline the stages involved in writing the Handbooks? How does this compare to what’s required with some of your other books (such as the ‘Sixties’)?
The most fundamental difference is between an illustrated book and a non-illustrated book. For the Handbooks, we start by preparing a page/chapter breakdown showing what we are covering and how many pages it will take up (and therefore how many words). We then apportion the bits out between us. Assuming all is equal, the chapters end up at around their word length and so the whole book ends up at around the 90,000 words required. Some have been shorter (4th Dr was only 80,000) and some have been longer (1st Dr was 110,000).
With the illustrated books, you also have to consider the text/image ratio — how many pictures you want and how big you want them to be on the page. This then dictates how many words you get per chapter. Also, the chapters must be multiples of 2 pages long (as each must start on an odd-numbered page). The number of pages in a chapter also dictates the number of side-bar sections that can be included.Once all this has been worked out, the writing starts. But there is also photo research to be done, and, once you know roughly what you want to use, you have to get clearance to use the pictures (and pay for them if necessary). Then the layout and design takes place. Then there’s photo captioning, checking that images are round the right way, that they’re correctly positioned and not badly cropped, that the rare pics have been used where possible and the use of common pictures kept to a minimum.
Finally, in both cases, we have to check the final proofs to make sure that everything is okay — layout, spelling, typography (and, in the case of colour books, the colours and damage/marks on photographs). This stage usually takes about 2 weeks, or possibly less if the publisher’s schedule is running late.
(4) How would you compare the Troughton book to the other Handbooks in terms of both style and content?
As the book is in a series, it doesn’t differ wildly from the others. Hopefully, stylistically, it’s the same. In terms of content, the ‘Script to Screen’ is on The Mind Robber with some excellent input from Evan Hercules and David Maloney. The ‘additional chapter’ is on Visual Effects and features a lot of BBC memos on the subject. There are some new sections in the ‘Selling the Doctor’ chapter on things like Australian transmissions and censor cuts, plus a superb piece on the junking of early Who by Andrew Pixley and Jan Vincent Rudzki.There is no Production Diary simply because there isn’t the same level and depth of information available in the BBC files for later Doctors as for Hartnell. Instead, we have carried over some of the information (eg budgets) into the ‘Who FAX’ and have also expanded them slightly to bring in some story outlines (like for The Evil of the Daleks, The Seeds of Death and The Faceless Ones) as well as other goodies like a script for The Web of Fear trailer and other bits and pieces. We hope that this will in part make up for the lack of a full Production Diary piece. A lot of the available information for the Troughton Years is in the book somewhere, but just not in the same format as in the Hartnell book.
(5) Can you give us a sneak preview of what we can expect in the McCoy Handbook (the only one remaining in the series)?
Again, it won’t be wildly different. We haven’t yet decided on a ‘Script to Screen’, nor on what the ‘extra chapter’ will be. There will be a lengthy piece on the TV Movie, which will also cover the McGann Doctor. We’re also hoping to have an errata for all the previous handbooks, plus a complete index to all the handbooks at the back. Work starts on this around October this year, and it’s due to be delivered next April.
(6) Do you have any future projects lined up at the moment?
Steve and myself have just been commissioned by the BBC for a book called ‘Doctor Who : The Television Companion’ which is due for delivery next February. We haven’t started it yet, so the format has not been 100 per cent finalised.
(7) Thank you David for your time! We wish you the best of success with your future projects.
Thanks.
Additional note : David also maintains the following web-site that contains a wide variety of material on his books, ‘The Frame’, and of course, collectables :
http://homepages.which.net/~howe/
THE SECOND DOCTOR HANDBOOK — PREVIEW
by David Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen J Walker
Co-editor Robert casts his eyes over the soon-to-be-released ‘Second Doctor Handbook’ …
“His hair…His face…Look at it!”
As I sat down with my copy of the ‘Second Doctor Handbook’, I had high expectations. The Handbooks have been amongst my favourite non-fiction Who books. This new installment was not a disappointment either. The book starts out modestly with an introduction to Pat Troughton. All the Handbooks feature this section — in this case, I will always feel very sad with the thought that I’ll never have the chance to see Troughton in person. Presented here are Troughton’s views on such diverse topics as “Billy” Hartnell and religion.
The book then continues with a detailed section on the creation of the second Doctor. As I read, I was struck by the thought, more than I ever have been before, how untested all this was in 1966. We easily accept regeneration now that we’ve seen eight characters in the lead role. But the feeling must have been incredible to sit in front of the television in 1966, and see your favourite hero just fade away…into…well, somebody else. One has to stop and wonder what would have happened if the whole thing had not been as carefully planned and executed as it was.
The stories section is filled with the usual facts, and is highlighted with some very detailed descriptions of stories that many people can no longer enjoy on video. The authors also let you in on their feelings about the stories. Their views can vary quite noticeably, except when it comes to the accepted classics. However, their differing opinions remind us that we all love Dr. Who for many reasons.
Next, is the ‘Script to Screen’ section. This describes how a typical story from the era of the programme was made — the example here is The Mind Robber. To be honest this is always the point where I find myself getting a bit bored with the Handbooks. Although I enjoyed the initial story breakdowns, the clips of interviews with the director, designer, etc always tend to slow the pace. However the book picks back up for its final chapter, which provides details on how the series was marketed abroad. In particular, I found Damian Shanahan’s background on the series in Australia very interesting.
Overall, the book provides a good glimpse at the rigours of not only producing Doctor Who, but of rekindling the flame, so to speak. Innes Lloyd can be thanked a lot of bringing a new approach and audience to Who. Peter Bryant and Terrance Dicks are also worth a notable mention. Unfortunately we cannot enjoy many of the Troughton era classics any more, but with this book at least we can relive what it must have been like in those bygone days.
THE REFERENCE JOURNAL — REVIEW
THE DOCTOR WHO PRODUCTION GUIDE VOLUME 2 : REFERENCE JOURNAL
By David Brunt, Andrew Pixley and Keith A Armstrong
I was very excited at the prospect of reading this guide, because I’m a self-confessed anorak when it comes to production details. I was not disappointed when I opened the book — it contained everything I ever wanted to know about the making of Doctor Who.
I find it best to use the “RJ” when watching a story on video. Then, you can find out such details as :
- the rehearsal dates and venue
- location filming details
- the recording dates, venue and scenes recorded
- any remounts from previous recording blocks
- any problems during a recording session / on location
- music details (recording, composition and duration)
- the transmission dates of the episodes and audience figures
But don’t let all these lists put you off. If you’re more interested in the story element of the programme, the RJ will also be of use. In the book, you will find many fascinating details about your favourite stories. However, only the most dedicated will be able to read the book from cover to cover. In fact, in the foreward, one of the authors states that he’ll be furious if he finds out people have done this! The RJ really is just a book of lists. And probably the most complete book of lists that will ever be complied on Doctor Who.
The above is only a hint at what is available — it took the authors eighteen months to compile the material, and it shows! What basically stemmed from the authors’ desire to have all the information in one central reference point has turned into an extremely useful resource for all fans.
I would recommend the RJ to any fan interested in the finer details of how a television series is produced. But you may want to hurry. This A4-sized softcover is available from the DWAS in a limited print run only. For orders in the UK, send £10 (includes packing and postage) to PO Box 519, London, SW17 8BU, England. For US, Australian and New Zealand orders the cost is £15 (inclusive). For these countries, please send cheques in pounds sterling drawn on a British bank. Alternatively, they can accept Visa and Mastercard (which will debit your card at the sterling rate, thus avoiding conversion costs). For further information contact the DWAS at Reference@DWAS.DrWho.org.
(SIMON WILES)
STORY GUIDES
SEASON 1 STORY 3
C : Inside the Spaceship
(a) GENERAL
2 episodes
| Episode | TX | TI | DU | VA | CP | AA |
| The Edge of Destruction | 08 Feb 64 | 17.15 | 25’04” | 10.4 | 21 | 61 |
| The Brink of Disaster | 15 Feb 64 | 17.17 | 22’11” | 9.9 | 31 | 60 |
Total Duration = 47’15”
Average Viewing Audience = 10.15 million
Average Chart Position = 26
Repeat Screenings — nil on BBC1, although the story has been screened on UK Gold and BSB.
(b) VIDEO FOOTAGE
Status — both episodes were originally destroyed at an unknown time between 1972 and 1977. Negative film prints were recovered from BBC Enterprises during 1977/78.
Clips: n/a
Notes:
- never released on BBC video
- the BBC also possess an Arabic dubbed version of The Brink of Disaster (as a black/white 16mm telerecording), a clip of which can be seen on ‘The Hartnell Years’ tape.
(c) AUDIO RECORDINGS
n/a
(d) RECONSTRUCTIONS
n/a
(e) PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIAL
Telesnaps — currently missing.
PasB (Programme-as-Broadcast) documentation indicates that John Cura created telesnaps for both episodes.
Behind-the-Scenes Shots — nil
Publicity Shots —
- 17 Jan 64 — photocall at Lime Grove D — set and cast photos
- 24 Jan 64 — photocall at Lime Grove D — cast publicity shots
(f) AUSTRALIAN CENSOR CUTS
| Episode | DR | FT | RA | CUTS |
| The Edge of Destruction | 05 May 64 | 941 | A | none |
| The Brink of Disaster | 05 May 64 | 832 | A | none |
(g) OTHER NOTES
- Just after rehearsals commenced for 100,000 BC, Donald Baverstock (Chief of Programmes for BBCTV) decided to commission Doctor Who on a trial 13 episode basis only. Therefore, this created the necessity to slot in an extra 2-part story after The Mutants. Due to the lateness of the decision, script editor David Whitaker was forced to write the scripts himself. This also meant that no time / money was available for set design, so the production had to be limited to the TARDIS interior set.
- All filming occurred at Lime Grove Studio D (17 Jan and 24 Jan 1964).
- Novelisation by Nigel Robinson. ‘Doctor Who — The Edge of Destruction’ (#132) was first published by W.H. Allen in October 1988 with a cover by Alister Pearson. Subsequent reprints have been published by Virgin Publishing.
REVIEWS AND COMMENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE MOONBASE (COI VERSION)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My favourite DW story of all time is The Tomb of the Cybermen, so naturally my expectations for The Moonbase were high, perhaps too high. Fortunately, most of them were fulfilled. The story is okay, nothing special really. But I had my suspicions about that before I saw it, so that wasn’t much of a letdown. I love those Cybermen voices, and was very happy to learn that they were the same as in Tomb. There was nothing wrong with the acting — Troughton was in good form, and Ben came across as a fairly decent ‘tough guy’. Although Jamie wasn’t really part of the middle episodes, the way he was written out was imaginative (I loved his Phantom piper ramblings). In short, a good story.
How about the reconstruction then? I didn’t really know what to expect, but as the story started I found myself enjoying it from the start. The onscreen text helped me tremendously in following the action, although this story probably is easy to follow even without subtitles. The quality of the pictures was good and nicely varied throughout the reconstruction episodes. Very good!
(JOACHIM ANDERSSON)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE SAVAGES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve managed to see all of The Savages now, and am vastly impressed — indeed I’ve been singing their praises to just about everyone. What it comes down to, is that the constantly changing images with the script make the whole thing so watchable. You discover far more about the story than with the old soundtrack — even following it with the script and/or telesnaps. No — this is brilliant … watching The Savages I saw so much I’d never realised before. Indeed it was so exciting it was almost as good as watching a newly recovered story!
The soundtracks are excellent — there is very little indeed that I could possibly fault with this superb work! The text on the screens is fine — if anything, it is sequences like the Dodo/Wylda one in Episode 2 which benefit the most, and finally make the story more visual and coherent.
So finally … am I satisfied with the results of your videos? More than satisfied! These are a triumph and a lot more people should be made aware of them!
(ANDREW PIXLEY)
LETTERS AND OPINIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~
I do like what Michael Palmer is doing with his reconstructions — his Tenth Planet:4 was inspired! I would like to see more clips from other stories used to re-build missing scenes, such as a reconstruction of the Yeti battle in Web via clips from War Machines and Ambassadors of Death, but I think I am in the minority on this one! JNT could have built up the Shada release if he had used TARDIS scenes from other stories, plus a variety of “stolenm moments from other episodes, as well as the newly shot K-9 Krarg footage. A missed opportunity I feel\
(LEE MOONE)
~~~~~~~~~~~
I have just read most of issue #8 of the ‘Change of Identity’ newsletter. There’s one slight error: the “Next Week” caption is intact at the end of Episode 6 of The Seeds of Death, and it is syndicated in the US this way, as is The Mind Robber. I’ve seen both these final episodes on two different PBS stations, WLIW and one from Pennsylvania that I could only get in the attic!
(CHRIS KRISOCKI)
~~~~~~~~~~~
Currently, I am involved in a marathon of watching Dr. Who. At first, I tried to watch a story in “one hit”, but this proved unsatisfactory. I found watching an episode and doing something else, and then coming back later, allowed me to enjoy each story better. Hartnell and Troughton faired best with this approach. I tried to watch at least two stories from each Doctor from my collection. I enjoyed them much better in the episodic format — all in all, a great holiday.
One side note, I had stopped being an active fan of Dr. Who for many years, until my bout two years ago with colon cancer. The long recovery from surgery and chemotherapy made it imperative that I keep my mind occupied and entertained. There is much being made of having a positive attitude that “heals”. I was advised to watch musicals and comedies. This I did — for variety, however, I watched Dr. Who for upliftment! At first, I was not given much chance for survival. I am still here, and still watching Dr. Who. The cancer has not come back or shown up in other areas like the doctors thought.
(CHARLIE DOMAGALSKI)
MEMORY CHEATS
I’m not quite sure when I first started watching Doctor Who. I know my dad was a Hartnell fan but my mum was worried that when I reached an impressionable age, the programme would give me nightmares. So one day, at the tender age of about 4, my dad allowed me to watch. However, mum came home early and caught us both. She was quite annoyed at my dad, but I remember telling her not to worry as I wasn’t afraid, because Doctor Who was a funny man. I was warned that if I had any bad dreams about the programme, I would not be allowed to watch it again.
The first memory I have is of Troughton shouting at Jamie for help whilst being trapped between an active sphere and a Yeti in The Abominable Snowmen. After that, all I remember was weeks and weeks of snow, people working in snow, people hiding behind snow, monsters with helmets in snow, snow, snow and a bit more snow. I don’t remember anything in particular from The Ice Warriors really, apart from the snow!
My next memory is something of a strange one. Now, bear in mind that I was not yet five, but during an episode of what I now know to be the The Enemy of the World, I noticed that Victoria, who was wearing a tight polo-neck sweater, had breasts! I remember this very clearly — Jamie was sitting next to her on a bench with wallpaper behind them. Victoria must have risen from her chair and stuck her chest out slightly, as at this point I turned to my mum and asked her if Jamie and Victoria were playing “Mummy’s & Daddy’s” — just my innocent way of saying that I had noticed Miss Watling’s ample frame! You see up until that point, I thought Victoria was a little girl and was not aware she was being played by “a grown-up”.
Nightmare time next, as The Web of Fear hit the screens. I had done so well up until this story, my dreams had been monster-free. But after the first episode of this story had been transmitted, I remember crawling into my mum and dad’s bed that Saturday night, hotly denying that my nightmares had anything to do with Doctor Who. The BBC were obviously right to change the Yeti from its previously cuddly image. The other memory of this story was of the Doctor crawling to the side of the underground track to hide from someone or something walking towards him. I do not think this is the scene of the Doctor hiding in episode one.
Don’t know what I was doing during March & April 1968, perhaps Doctor Who had received a temporary ban in the Moone household, but I have no recollection of anything from Fury From the Deep. I do know that I was aware that Victoria had left, as the spit drawing I had ‘painted’ with my finger of the Dr, Jamie & Victoria on a dusty red metal door at the end of our road, was updated to incorporate Zoe by artistically adding trousers and squaring off the hair to the Victoria figure. (I later went on to gain A level art!!).
The Wheel in Space next, and another odd memory. Not one memory of Cybermen but of food! All I remember from this story is the scene in episode 1 of the Doctor and Jamie pressing buttons to get “space-age” food. In the telesnap, this bit is covered by a close-up, but I remember Jamie being the closest to the camera receiving food from the left-hand side of the screen and not being too impressed with it.
Here in the UK, the next few months consisted of a repeat screening of The Evil of the Daleks, but I have no memory whatsoever about this story. Yet by the time that The Day of the Daleks was aired on TV in 1972, I knew exactly what the Daleks were. In fact, during the late seventies while still at secondary school, my friend asked me in what story did the Daleks play trains while shouting out “Dizzy Dalek”. I told him not to be so stupid because they never did this, and that he must have got it confused with a Spike Milligan sketch. WRONG!
About a year later, I remember the second Doctor’s final moments in The War Games being repeated on Junior Points of View. About the same time, while sitting in my dad’s car, I was shown a picture of the new Doctor being picked up by a Yeti in the ‘Daily Sketch’ newspaper. I was not impressed. In fact, while Pertwee’s first season was being transmitted, I was convinced that this was still Troughton in the role, but now sporting a white wig! Wishful thinking on my part I think.
A final memory cheats — it’s a plea for help. During the summer of 1976, I noticed that the cricket coverage on BBC1 had been replaced with an edited version of The Seeds of Doom. After some initial hesitation, I did watch the story, and do not remember any episode breaks. Is this the reason why a repeat of this story, due for transmission in July 1976, was cancelled at the last minute? Can someone out there please back me up on this, as there seems to be no record of the screening at all.
(LEE MOONE)
TRIVIA QUESTION
Ummm … last issue we asked a trivia question which was obviously a *LITTLE* bit too tricky! For the two of you who are interested, the Doctor Who episodes where the opening titles are longer than the closing credits are An Unearthly Child, The Cave of Skulls, The Celestial Toyroom, The Evil of the Daleks Episode 3, The Wheel in Space Episode 3, and The Ambassadors of Death Episode 1. If you don’t believe us, consult the Reference Journal (as reviewed above).
This issue sees a trivia question with a difference … well, it’s not really a trivia question at all. Instead, we’re keen to find a new name for this newsletter. When the newsletter started off, its primary function was to promote the ‘Change of Identity’ reconstructions. However, this has changed vastly in recent issues. The newsletter now concentrates on the Hartnell/Troughton era generally, with perhaps a bias towards the missing episodes. Therefore, we’re after a new name that reflects this change. Any ideas???
REQUESTS
A special request first up. It’s probably best if we publish Michael’s letter in full …
“Hi all. I should explain that I have neither sight nor hearing, but I loved Dr Who when I could hear. Tragically, there’s virtually no books available in Braille for me to read. When I was young, I watched all the stories, well heard them since I was born blind. Now I have gone deaf, I just love reading science fiction. After starting with Star Wars, it is now Doctor Who’s turn. Therefore, if anyone can help me with obtaining scripts so that I can run through my scanner, I’d be grateful. Thanking you all in advance.”
— Michael Gerwat michael@grate.demon.co.uk
Dominic Jackson has expanded his newly-created web-site to include a ‘Change of Identity’ FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). If you’re curious to know what the first COI reconstruction really was, or some of the problems encountered in making the videos, then have a read of the FAQ. Dominic’s web-page is located at :
http://freespace.virgin.net/dominic.jackson/
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the following for help with this issue : Keith Armstrong, Richard Bignell, David Howe, Dominic Jackson, Lee Moone and Simon Wiles.
BORING STUFF
The Doctor Who reconstructions are fan-produced endeavours completed without the consent of BBC Worldwide, BBC Television, or any holders of the Doctor Who licence. No infringement on any such copyright holder is intended nor are the tapes produced for any sort of monetary compensation. Tapes are distributed through the worldwide Doctor Who fan network. Support the BBC releases!
Issues 1 to 8 are still available. Issues 1-3 are available in plain text only, while issues 4 – 8 can be obtained in plain text or MS Word 6. Alternatively, HTML versions are available for all the issues (and your name can be added to a HTML mailing list). Just write to one of the editors for further details. All of the back-issues can be obtained in HTML format from the following web-site :
